Well I know it's beyond the deadline but I figured I would record something just the same whether you can use it or not , had fun experimenting with some tapping and thought I would post this to at least get some feedback Thanks for the cool backing Ben!

Hey thanks alot Greg! you have some nice and tasty chops in your take as well, congrats! In fact I was just going thru your take and others in this collab and there are tons of great takes!! Congrats to Ben and everyone on a very successfull colab! I wish I would have checked it out sooner.

Well I know it's beyond the deadline but I figured I would record something just the same whether you can use it or not , had fun experimenting with some tapping and thought I would post this to at least get some feedback Thanks for the cool backing Ben!

[attachment=28033:desert.mp3]

[attachment=28034:desertnb.mp3]

Damn.. Rich that is a sweet take ! Love it

I'm already hearing some quarter note delay being put on that when I mix it

Opetholic - Great solo.. I don't have any real criticisms here. Maybe watch out for your fast licks.. they sounded awesome but they seemed to fall out of synch with the backing just a little, possibly a bit in front of the beat ? The intensity was great, though - keep it up. And you know I love those little Arabian touches you put into it

No Skill - lovely tone here.. also, beginning a solo on a nice, double stop bend is always a winner ! The hand synchronisation was a little wayward during your fast run but apart from that, a very tasteful and well executed solo - nice to have you on board for the first time

Gitarrero - I honestly thought you were going to try and sneak the opening riff to Crazy Train into a collab... again ! I can hear how you're paying more attention to choosing strong chord tones now and it's paying off because your solos don't sound as meandering as they once did, they sound more focused ! I was worried about the bend but you kind of got away with it because you could have been going for the flat 5th sound

Hungry for Heaven - A great solo for you. Really love your bending and vibrato touches.. they sound really precise and sharp. My favourite bit is when you sneak in that really high bend !! Whammy madness works as well and so do those Schenker style speedy hammer ons

Casinostrat - A high impact solo here... I like the approach of going straight for the jugular with some fast runs like that. The hand co ordination could be improved so I would work on some basic 3 note per string picking exercises to help you synch them up a bit. Also, your note targeting could do with sharpening up a bit (although I appreciate most of these takes are ad-libbed so we don't always spend the time to compose..) as you want to avoid a meandering sound. Go for strong tones like root, 3rd, 5th etc when you're doing sparse phrasing, but when it's busy licks you only need to worry about note targeting when you're ending a run. Hope that makes sense. I also quite like your tone here.. when you hit those higher notes and put the vibrato on in reminds me of Glen Tipton of Judas Priest.

AK Rich - Homey, I love this take. A real different approach and it works ! Only thing I'd suggest is when you get to the end of the second ascending part, maybe vary the tail end of the licks so you get some variation. That's all, though Very desert vibe !!

DeGroot - nothing to complain about here.. a very toneful solo from you, man. If anything, you can maybe hear that it's been compiled together so if you were laying down a solo in a situation of higher stake, you might want to tie it together a bit more by playing it all in one go maybe.. but that's all I noticed. Playing wise, it's hot stuff !

Llibach - Like your open string phrasing here.. a good way of setting up a solo ! I'd give you some of the same advice as I gave Casinostrat, try to give some love to developing you hand co ordination if you can and try to focus on nailing strong chordal tones ! Nice, clean distorted tone too..

Gregc1 - Nobody liked your solo, Greg.

Ben - Yours sucked too.

Ok, sorry.. it had to be done !

Gregc1 - This was a very popular solo and for good reason. You displayed some seriously excellent command of phrasing... seriously, it could have come from George Lynch himself. The amazing thing is, it was mostly all pulled from the Pentatonic scale as well. Just shows what we can do when we focus on them strong target notes and pick the right time to land on them ! Well done.

Ben/Me - I decided I couldn't really follow Greg's solo, there was no point trying to cover similar ground so I went for a different approach, using some sustained notes, ringing into each other to try to conjure up a vast landscape. Not sure if it works, you have to be the judge.. but I always think that note bleeding / ringing sound conjures up an atmosphere of open space.

Gentlemen, it was an absolute pleasure doing this with you. It's been my favourite collab ever and it was only because of what you all brought to it.. congratulate yourselves- well done !!

For your solo, I think you nailed the vast landscape feel. It had a very "large" quality to it. Just like AK's gave me kind of a confused, wondering feel (not the playing, the vibe). I kept picturing a lost nomad struggling through a sand storm for shelter as the excessive amounts of peyote takes it's toll.

This could boost my video views if you guys are all looking for a classic riff And to make it extra-interesting, I'll only use that one special riff you all pretend to hear when I play something in 50% of my takes.

This could boost my video views if you guys are all looking for a classic riff And to make it extra-interesting, I'll only use that one special riff you all pretend to hear when I play something in 50% of my takes.

For your solo, I think you nailed the vast landscape feel. It had a very "large" quality to it. Just like AK's gave me kind of a confused, wondering feel (not the playing, the vibe). I kept picturing a lost nomad struggling through a sand storm for shelter as the excessive amounts of peyote takes it's toll.

Have a good one guys!

"as the excessive amounts of peyote takes it's toll." Hahaaha thats awesome man thank you so much! This collab was the bomb! congrats to everyone once again for a bang up job and special thanks to Ben for allowing me in beyond the deadline, thanks bro I love what you did with the track as well, awesome ninja skillz! .Some of you guys may need a new set of strings after that kind of mayhem!. W00T!!!